Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Mongolia

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Mongolia: a handful of Jews in Ulaanbaatar, diplomatic relations with "Israel" since 1991, Israeli development aid, and Ehud Barak's and Jeffrey Epstein's seats on the Mongolian president's advisory board

Mongolia has only a few Jews, most of them Israelis and other expatriates living in Ulaanbaatar, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] "Israel" and Mongolia established diplomatic relations in 1991; in 2011 the Israeli foreign ministry listed Mongolia as covered by its ambassador in China.[2] The Israeli development agency MASHAV signed an agreement in 2024 to support a Mongolian tree-planting movement.[3] The leaked emails of Ehud Barak show him visiting Ulaanbaatar in 2013 and sitting, with Jeffrey Epstein, on an advisory board for the Mongolian president from 2014.

Jewish community and religious life

History and demography

According to the WJC, Siberian Jewish merchants settled on the Mongolian side of the border at the end of the 19th century, and by 1920 a small community of Russian origin had formed in Outer Mongolia. Russian anti-Bolshevik forces deported it in 1921. A second community of Russian Jews formed from 1925 and settled in Urga (now Ulaanbaatar). Religion, including Judaism, was forbidden in the Soviet period, and many Jewish families assimilated. After the fall of the Soviet Union many Jews left, some for "Israel".[1]

Today there are no official figures. The WJC quotes the community's leader, Sumati Luvsandendev, as saying that "there are enough fingers on two hands to count all Jews who live [in Mongolia]". All of them live in Ulaanbaatar, and Judaism is not officially recognised as a religion.[1]

Communal organisations

Jewish Community of Mongolia (Монгол Улс дахь жид үндэстэн). The WJC lists it as its Mongolian affiliate; it is also affiliated with the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. There are no rabbis in Mongolia. The community meets from time to time for the High Holidays, with support from the chief rabbi of Irkutsk in Siberia, Aharon Wagner.[1]

How far is it Zionist? The community is affiliated with the WJC and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. No statement by the community itself on Zionism or "Israel" was found.

Chabad

Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement

There is no Chabad Bot page for Mongolia.

Zionist groups

Mongol-Jewish Cooperation. According to the WJC, the Mongol-Jewish Cooperation, "a Jewish interest group", was formed in 2003 "with the hopes that it would facilitate a greater interest in Israel and Judaism in the country".[1] No website or other record of the group was found.

Israeli state and commercial ties

Diplomacy

The Israeli foreign ministry dates the establishment of relations to September 1991. Its 2011 list of missions showed no resident embassy in Mongolia: "Israel" was represented by its ambassador in China and had an honorary consul.[2] Mongolia lets Israeli citizens enter without a visa.[1] In October 2021, marking 30 years of relations, the Mongolian foreign minister, B. Battsetseg, spoke by telephone with her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid; she expressed interest in co-operation in "innovation, advanced technology, agriculture, and tourism".[4]

Development aid

On 17 December 2024 the "Billion Trees National Movement", an NGO set up to support a tree-planting campaign launched by the Mongolian president, signed a memorandum of understanding with MASHAV, the development agency of the Israeli foreign ministry. The two sides agreed to start planting trees in Ulaanbaatar in spring 2025.[3]

Arms

SIPRI records no Israeli arms deliveries to Mongolia.[5]

Trade

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Mongolia separately in its trade tables.[6]

Political interference

UN voting

Mongolia voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[7]

Ehud Barak's emails

The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[8]

  • Ulaanbaatar visit, 2013. In early 2013 the Israeli lawyer Ami Orkaby arranged a visit by Barak with the staff of Mongolia's National Security Council. In February 2013 the council told Orkaby that its secretary looked forward to the visit and asked for Barak's wishes, such as meetings with "highest government officials" and travel to the countryside; in April it sent a draft programme, which Orkaby forwarded to Nili Priell Barak for Barak's comments.[9] Barak was in Ulaanbaatar during the Community of Democracies conference there; in May 2013 the council's staff sent him President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj's opening statement and the conference's Ulaanbaatar Declaration "held in Ulaanbaatar during your stay here".[10]
  • A presentation weapon. In April 2013 Barak had a plaque made, "presented by Ehud Barak to" the secretary of the National Security Council of Mongolia.[11] The person arranging the shipment replied that "since it involves a weapon" (כיון שמדובר בנשק) the airline needed the recipient's telephone number.[12]
  • Mongolia Presidential Advisory Board. In April 2013 Terje Rød-Larsen of the International Peace Institute (IPI) sent Barak a draft plan for an "International Advisory Team for Mongolia", with experts on financial strategy and "security and defence strategy". Barak replied that it was "a very goody idea. Thoughtful, far looking and necessary".[13] The board's first meeting with Elbegdorj was held in Davos on 24 January 2014. The IPI's list of participants named Elbegdorj, his national security and foreign policy adviser Lundeg Purevsuren, Barak, Kjell Magne Bondevik, Jeffrey Epstein ("Financier"), Kevin Rudd, Larry Summers and Rød-Larsen. Barak was to take the item on "the stability of its democracy and the regional security context".[14] In February 2014 the IPI sent Barak the draft minutes and asked for his bank details for his "remuneration"; his office replied that payment should go to Hyperion Ltd, "through which Mr. Barak provides his services".[15][16]
  • Epstein and the board. On 28 April 2014 Epstein wrote to Barak: "can we speak, nothing urgent. mongolia, schedule."[17] On 2 May he told him: "send terje the paragraph for mongolia today."[18]
  • Planned visit, 2014. In June and July 2014 Barak's office tried to arrange a visit to Ulaanbaatar with Rød-Larsen to meet the president during the summer festivities. The IPI wrote that a visit on 7 July had been cancelled and an alternative date had not been confirmed.[19][20]
  • Purevsuren's visit to "Israel", 2016. In January 2016 Purevsuren, by then foreign minister, wrote that he planned to visit "Israel" on 14 March. Barak's office offered to arrange meetings with political and business figures, in "agriculture, medicine, high tech etc."[21]

Jeffrey Epstein

The documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Epstein files include:

  • an invitation from Mort Zuckerman to Epstein to a dinner that Zuckerman and Rød-Larsen were hosting on 23 September 2013 "in honor of Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, the President of Mongolia";[22]
  • an email of 27 October 2013 from Purevsuren thanking Epstein, on behalf of Elbegdorj, for their "interesting conversation" in New York that September and confirming the president's "personal invitation for you to visit Mongolia";[23]
  • the IPI's notes of the Davos meeting of 24 January 2014, which record that Barak, Bondevik, Epstein and Rudd joined by telephone, and Summers and Rød-Larsen in person;[24]
  • an email of 28 September 2015 in which Epstein listed his guests to the magician David Blaine: "white house people Ehud Barak , president of mongolia ( nice guy)".[25]
Source conflict: the IPI's agenda email to Barak lists Barak and Epstein among participants "in-person or via conference call", while the minutes say both joined by telephone.[14][24]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 World Jewish Congress, Community in Mongolia worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011 (Israeli government-side).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation to Support "Billion Trees" National Movement MONTSAME, December 2024, accessed 21 October 2026.
  4. ↑ Minister of Foreign Affairs holds telephone conversation with her Israeli counterpart MONTSAME, October 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.
  5. ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
  6. ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
  7. ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
  8. ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
  9. ↑ Email from Ami Orkaby to Nili Priell, forwarded to Ehud Barak, "Fwd: השב: Minister Ehud Barak visit", 9 April 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!47/1 (434).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  10. ↑ Email from the National Security Council of Mongolia to Ehud Barak, "Community of Democracies Conference material", 6 May 2013, file ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com/Inbox!3/1 (29).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Email from Ehud Barak, "Re: השב: Minister Ehud Barak visit", 17 April 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent Messages/1 (232).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  12. ↑ Email to Ehud Barak, "תשובה: Final version of address", 18 April 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!47/1 (318).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Email from Ehud Barak to Terje Rød-Larsen, "Re: Fw:", 22 April 2013, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!47/1 (245).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Email from the International Peace Institute, "Mongolia Advisory Board meeting - Today, 6pm (Davos time)", 24 January 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!39/1 (202).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  15. ↑ Email from Andrea Pfanzelter (IPI), "Mongolia draft minutes", 25 February 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!38/1 (142).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  16. ↑ Email from Nili Priell Barak to Andrea Pfanzelter (IPI), "Re: Mongolia draft minutes", 28 February 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!38/1 (108).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  17. ↑ Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Ehud Barak, 28 April 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!35/1 (497).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  18. ↑ Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Ehud Barak, "Re: touch Base JE", 2 May 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!35/1 (351).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  19. ↑ Email from Nili Priell Barak to Andrea Pfanzelter (IPI), "Mongolia - urgent", 30 June 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!32/1 (356).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  20. ↑ Email from Andrea Pfanzelter (IPI) to Nili Priell Barak, "Re: visit to Mongolia", 24 July 2014, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!31/1 (366).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  21. ↑ Email from Nili Priell Barak to Lundeg Purevsuren, "Re: Mongolia", 29 January 2016, file ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!2/1 (453).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026.
  22. ↑ Email invitation from Mort Zuckerman to Jeffrey Epstein, "Invitation for dinner Monday 23 September, 8.30p, from Mort Zuckerman", 10 September 2013, EFTA01955188, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 10, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
  23. ↑ Email from Lundeg Purevsuren, forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein, "Fwd: Greetings from Mongolia", 27 October 2013, EFTA01790369, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 10, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Notes from Mongolia Presidential Advisory Board meeting, Davos, 24 January 2014", EFTA01188067, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
  25. ↑ Email exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and David Blaine, "Re: Perfect", 28 September 2015, EFTA02339646, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 11, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 21 October 2026.
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